Gov't job creation budget to rise to record volume next year

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The government plans to increase its job creation budget by over 20 percent to a record volume of nearly 26 trillion won (US$21.4 billion) next year, with unemployment benefits accounting for a record 40 percent of the total, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday.

The government will spend 25.77 trillion won in 2020 on job creation, marking a rise of 21.3 percent from this year, the ministry said, citing a government budget proposal for next year that was endorsed by the Cabinet last Thursday.

By category, the government will earmark 10.36 trillion won, or 40.2 percent of the entire job creation budget, for the financial support of the jobless, which includes unemployment benefits and employment promotion allowances.

The annual amount of unemployment benefits is projected to reach 9.55 trillion won next year, with the number of beneficiaries totaling 1.37 million people. This year, about 1.21 million people are expected to receive 7.18 trillion won in unemployment benefits. Beginning next year, the amount of unemployment benefit payouts will rise from the current 50 percent of the average income to 60 percent, while the payment period will be lengthened from 90 to 240 days to 120 to 270 days.

The government will also set aside 6.62 trillion won for various employment promotion subsidies, while increasing spending on direct job creation by 40.7 percent to 2.92 trillion won. Of the direct job creation programs, job projects for the elderly will increase 47 percent to 1.19 trillion won, with the number of elderly beneficiaries swelling from 610,000 to 740,000.

Budgets for business creation and vocational training will increase to 2.36 trillion won and 2.29 trillion won, respectively.

The government will earmark 164.2 billion won to pay a monthly job search allowance of 500,000 won to about 50,000 youths for up to six months.